Rumors of Our Deaths (Were Greatly Exaggerated)
by PirateOwl
Summary: When people become one with the Force, they become more powerful than even Vader could possibly imagine, more powerful even than the Death Star. Chirrut and Baze save the rest of the team and give them one chance to escape. Set immediately following the events of Rogue One. (Proudly and firmly in denial.)
1. Prologue

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me."

The words were quiet, but carried over the roar of destruction all around. They must have been her imagination, the mind playing tricks in the moment before death claimed her and Cassian. She held him closer, resting against his shoulder as he slumped against her.

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me."

The words came a little louder this time, a little clearer. Jyn was almost sure she heard Chirrut's voice.

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me." It was Baze's voice this time, distant but unmistakable.

Jyn's mother had told her stories about the Jedi, about the amazing this they could do. _Trust in the Force_ , she had said, putting the Khyber crystal around Jyn's neck.

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me." It was both Chirrut and Baze's voices, strong enough to be unmistakable. There was no possible way she should be able to hear them.

 _Trust the Force_ said her mother's voice, not audible like Chirrut and Baze, but no less real.

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me."

She wrapped her arms around Cassian and waited for the end with a smile. She did trust the Force, trusted that she would see all of them again, that this was not the end. And the end, even a temporary end, didn't come. The destruction passed them by, a cloud of dust and smoke rushed around them but they were somehow shielded from the worst of it. The ground trembled and they waited.

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me." The voice began to fade as the destruction settled around them. And they were alive. Injured, and trapped on a dying world, but alive.

"Thank you," Jyn said, unsure if their fallen friends could hear her.

Everything around them was changed, crumbled and broken by the might of the Death Star. The tower itself was entirely gone. She was aware of how heavily Cassian was leaning on her, most of his strength spent to reach this point.

"I am one with the…" The fading voice was interrupted by the hum of a motor and a ship hovering above the cracked and broken terrain.

"Get in," Bodhi Rook shouted over the sound of the engine. She needed no further prompting and helped Cassian up into the ship.


	2. Chapter 2

Cassian leaned heavily on Jyn as they made their way to the cockpit. He doubted he would have been able to make it without her and was struggling to stay on his feet even with her help. The injury and exhaustion of the last few hours were finally weighing down on him.

Jyn carefully lowered Cassian into the copilots chair and he slumped back into it gratefully.

"Are you alright?" Bodhi asked, seeing the injuries both of them wore.

"We're good," Cassian said, but his voice sounded weak, even to his own ears. "Are you?"

"I'm fine," Bodhi said. He looked a little freaked out, but unharmed. "There was a grenade, but I made it out."

"Stay here," Jyn said. She moved to get the first aid kit and Cassian didn't miss the way she winced when turned to walk way. Apparently, neither did Bodhi.

"You stay," Bodhi said. "Keep us in the atmosphere and straight ahead. You shouldn't have to do anything."

Cassian took the helm. He was exhausted and moving, even just leaning forward to run the ship, made his ribs ache and rubbed his shirt against his blaster burns. He felt Jyn's eyes on him and looked up, meeting her gaze. She didn't look away, unabashed at being caught staring, which made him smile. Jyn was pretty much unabashed about everything. She smiled back, a real smile, bright and warm.

Neither of them said anything. There was a lot to be said, but that could wait. They had what they thought they had run out of: time.

Bodhi returned and took his seat again, taking over at the helm. "Do you know first aid?" he asked. "Because I don't. I'm actually a little squeamish," he admitted.

"I'm not," Jyn said, taking the box from him. Squeamishness was a luxury that was unsustainable with Cassian's branch of the Rebellion, and he suspected it had been the same with Saw Gerrera's band. It made him irrationally happy that Bodhi had that luxury. It was probably shock from his injury; he couldn't think of any other explanation.

Jyn knelt beside Cassian, wincing as the motion put pressure on her injured leg.

"Let me look at your leg," Cassian said.

"Nice try. My leg is not bad," she told him. "Now sit still."

"Alright," he conceded.

She tore away a bit of his shirt, revealing the blaster burn on his side and the beginnings of bruises across his chest. Gently, not wanting to hurt him, she cleaned the blaster burn and applied a bacta pad to the area. A good long soak in a bacta tank would be better, but this was all they had on hand.

"This isn't the ship we came in," Cassian said through gritted teeth. As gentle as Jyn was, his side still hurt and he wanted the distraction.

Bodhi shrugged. "That one was damaged so I had to improvise. If I didn't have to steal another ship, I'd have been able to pick you up sooner. After I got the signal set up, a Stormtrooper tossed a grenade into the ship. It should have killed me, but I thought I though I heard… never mind."

"What?" Jyn asked.

"You would think I was crazy."

"Bodhi," Jyn said with a smile. "You followed me to Scarif. I already _know_ you're crazy."

Cassian smiled. Even as one of the people who followed her to Scarif, he couldn't really argue with that logic.

"Alright. I thought I heard a voice. You know that mantra Chirrut always says… said, I guess. Well, I heard it, or thought I did. And the grenade rolled away. Not far enough to keep the ship space worthy, but enough to keep me safe. It had rolled to a stop and then it moved again." He shrugged. "I don't know for sure what happened, but I think he saved me."

"He and Baze both," Cassian said softly. He had heard their voices, but thought he was imagining it. The Force had never had his back before.

"Yeah," Jyn agreed. "They saved us too."

There was a long, comfortable silence, tinged with sadness, while Jyn wrapped his side with a bacta pad and clean bandages.

"I think you have some broken ribs. Not surprising with that fall," she said. "There's nothing I can do for that, not with this anyway."

"Thanks, Jyn," Cassian said quietly. "Let me look at your leg."

"It's fine. And you're injured."

"And you aren't on your own anymore," he pointed out.

Jyn smiled and turned the chairs so she could prop her injured leg in Cassian's lap, careful not to brush his injured side.

He worked with practiced hands, firm, but still gentle.

"There. A little time in a bacta tank wouldn't be a bad idea, but it's not bad," Cassian said. He handed Jyn the first aid kit and she set it on the shelf beside her without moving her leg from its place on his lap. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.

"Why are we still on Scarif?" Jyn asked.

"Because we just survived the impossible and I plan on keeping it that way," Bodhi said. "Imperial protocol will keep the fleet in the area for quite a while, probably longer than usual, given what just happened. I'm finding a good place on the other side of the planet that is well hidden where I can set down and we can wait until most of them leave."

"We need to get back to the Rebel base," Cassian said.

"No we don't, not yet," Jyn said. "We did our part. Now we have to trust the Force and our allies. Let the rest of the Rebellion figure out what to do with the data."

* * *

Bodhi Rook was not comfortable making the calls, especially ones that meant life or death for him and the rest of the surviving Rogue One team, but somehow, by virtue of being the only one who knew certain Imperial protocols, he was the one making the decisions. Well, Cassian probably knew them, but he was barely in any condition to be awake, let alone analyzing what they should do. And Jyn was exhausted, not physically so much as mentally, and seemed content to let Bodhi decide what to do. So he was the one deciding how long to linger on Scarif.

He landed the ship near a stand of trees that would give them some shelter from prying eyes on ships overhead.

"It will be at least a couple of days. I guess we should get comfortable. There are emergency rations for a week, standard issue in all Imperial ships. They taste terrible, but we won't starve. I can monitor the Imperial frequencies. They won't be keeping their presence a secret, so they will be discussing things over open channels. I'll know when they leave."

"Thanks," Jyn said. She didn't move from where her leg was propped on Cassian's lap. She looked like it was exactly where she belonged.

"What now?" Bodhi asked. "When we leave here I mean."

"I didn't plan this far," she admitted. "You?"

"I was following you," Cassian murmured, without opening his eyes.

"There won't be any Rebel ships left in the area," Bodhi said, thinking aloud.

"No," Cassian said. "They would have jumped to hyperspace as soon as the Death Star arrived."

"And we don't want to risk a broadcast because if we do, the Empire could intercept it and decide to finish the job," Jyn said. "We're on our own for now."

"We head back to the Rebel base I guess," Bodhi said. "Right? Or will they have moved?"

"No one knows where it is. The Death Star won't make them move," Cassian said.

"Good. We still know where to go," Bodhi said. "You know what I was doing two weeks ago?" he asked. "I was going on an ordinary equipment run."

"I was in Imperial prison," Jyn said.

"Why?" Bodhi asked, then remembered he had betrayed the Empire and joined the Rebels. "Not that I'm one to judge," he added quickly.

Jyn smiled. "Most recently, forging Imperial documents. I wasn't a Rebel, but I didn't exactly tow the line either.

"I was on just an ordinary mission," Cassian said, opening his eyes.

"Is this not ordinary?" Bodhi asked with a laugh.

"No. This is… something extraordinary."


	3. Chapter 3

They slept for a while. Jyn wasn't sure how long and didn't really care. She wasn't in a hurry to get back to the rest of the galaxy. She normally wasn't comfortable sleeping around other people. It made her too vulnerable. But she found she slept easily with her leg propped on Cassian's lap and Bodhi dozing in the chair next to her. She trusted them, which was a strange, unfamiliar feeling. Jyn decided she liked it.

She woke some time later. It was still dark outside and Cassian was still sound asleep. Bodhi was listening to the radio, which crackled quietly.

"Goodmorning," Jyn mumbled, although it was still dark out. Or maybe dark out again. She didn't know the length of Scarif's rotation.

Bodhi jumped, then realized it was her and flashed a sheepish smile. "Goodmorning," he said quietly.

Jyn yawned and stretched her arms, but didn't move her injured leg from Cassian's lap. She told herself she didn't want to wake him, but some part of her didn't want to lose the contact.

"Did you get any sleep?" Jyn asked in a whisper so she wouldn't wake Cassian.

"A little," Bodhi said, also in a whisper. He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. He was obviously lying about sleeping but if he didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't going to push.

"Are we still on Scarif?" she asked.

"Mhm. The fleet's still out there."

"How do you know?"

He waved at the crackling radio next to him. "I've been on Imperial channels," he said. "It's strange listening in. As a Rebel, I mean."

"Oh. I guess that's quite a change. I'm freshly back to being a Rebel, and that's strange enough. Any news on the radio?"

Bodhi shook his head. "There was one thing. Apparently there was a terrible mining accident on a planet called Scarif. Pretty much the whole place was destroyed, including a major Imperial records facility."

"Is that so?" Jyn asked, as though this were complete news to her. "Shocking. I didn't even know they mined anything on Scarif."

"They don't," Bodhi agreed. "But they would have mass defections if they told the truth."

"Would they?" Jyn asked. She wasn't necessarily disagreeing. Bodhi had a better idea of the attitude of the average Imperial than she did.

Bodhi frowned, considering. "No," he admitted. "Defecting isn't an easy decision. I knew what the Empire was like from their occupation of Jedha, and I knew about the Death Star project, more or less, for a while before I did it. And even then it was only because Galen helped me realize I needed to. There would be a lot of people who would think about it, but there aren't many people like your father in the Empire, helping people make the right decision."

They sat in silence for a long moment, staring out into the darkness of Scarif's night, lost in their own thoughts.

"Okay, I have to ask. How did that conversation even start?" Jyn burst out. She glanced over to make sure she hadn't woken Cassian. He still slept soundly. He was more injured than the other two and needed his rest. If it weren't for the fact that they could soon head back to Yavin IV and get him into a proper bacta tank, she would have been quite worried about him. She brushed that thought aside and continued in a quieter voice. "I mean, he can't have just walked up to a complete stranger and said 'hey, do you want to defect?'."

Bodhi smiled. "No. It didn't start that way. He was nice. Not just to me, to all of us. Most Imperial scientists think they're too important to give cargo pilots the time of day. We're pretty much a rung below Stormtrooper in the Imperial hierarchy because not only are we expendable, but we don't even fight."

"That's ridiculous," Jyn said. She even believed it, although she recalled Saw had been nearly the same about noncombatants. If not for Bodhi's heroism getting the signal out, she might have been tempted to fall back on that view herself. She didn't like it, but she knew it was lurking somewhere in the back of her mind if she wasn't careful.

Bodhi shrugged. "It doesn't matter if it's true or not. That's how the rest of the Empire sees us. And scientists, usually, believe they are the most important part of the Empire. But Galen didn't. He was the only one who knew all of our names, always asked us how we were doing. It happened slowly, but we became friends. More often than not, we would end up playing a game or two of holochess while I was in port after making a delivery for him."

"Holochess?" Jyn asked. "I used to play with Pappa, before…" she waved a hand around at the ship, as though encompassing everything that had happened since she had been a child.

"Were you any good? He could almost always beat me," Bodhi said.

"I was six. He played without the queen to give me a fighting chance, but I still lost. I hadn't thought about that in a long time," she admitted.

"I think he was actually good at it, instead of me being just that terrible at it," Bodhi said.

Jyn smiled. "We'll have to see about that some time."

"There's no time like the present," Bodhi said, jerking his head toward the control panel.

"There isn't a board," she pointed out.

Bodhi grinned. "This is a secret of Imperial ships no one outside the Empire knows." He pulled out small shelf on the control panel with a checkerboard pattern, then flicked on the hologram. "It's the communications rig really," Bodhi explained. "But it's not difficult get it to run games. Everybody who works in the Empire knows it, and command overlooks it because it's good for morale. Most of the shelves here have been converted into a board."

"I haven't played since I was a kid," Jyn said. "I've mostly played sabacc for a while."

"I play that too," Bodhi said. He shrugged awkwardly. "There's a lot of downtime as a freight pilot."

They sat in silence for a while, each directing their pieces in turn.

"At some point I'm pretty sure he pulled some strings so I was delivering pretty exclusively for him," Bodhi said after a while. "Last week we sat down for a game and he told me the truth. Not what he was planning on doing about it, not even about the weakness. He just told me what the Empire was building and asked me if I wanted to do something about it. That's when he told me I could make it right."

"Was he…? Why you?"

"I've been asking myself that a lot this week," Bodhi admitted. "I've been wondering how long he had been planning this, whether he befriended me so I could be the messenger." He shrugged. "But I don't think it matters, not really. We were friends and I'm glad I could help him."

Jyn smiled. "You did good, Bodhi." She stared down at the game for a while. "My mother said that when people die, they become one with the Force."

"I heard that too, growing up on Jedha."

"And the Force is all around us. So I think my father knows we finished the job he started." She glanced back down at Cassian, still asleep in the chair. "I think he's proud of both of us."


End file.
